


All that you rely on; And all that you can fake

by Scarheart99789



Series: In My Veins [3]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Multi, So have some more sadness and angst, Still Soul Mate AU, This was an attempt in my mind to make things happy, Zack is only brought up, but it didn't work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-03 03:27:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2836349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarheart99789/pseuds/Scarheart99789
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aerith worked her hardest to see the brightest parts of life after she was taken in by Elmyra. Although she still remembered much of her mother, and what Shinra did to them, she couldn't fully find it within herself to hate them, or anyone else for that matter. As the last Cetra, or Ancient, she also began to believe that maybe the soul mate thing wouldn't apply to her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All that you rely on; And all that you can fake

Aerith worked her hardest to see the brightest parts of life after she was taken in by Elmyra. Although she still remembered much of her mother, and what Shinra did to them, she couldn't fully find it within herself to hate them, or anyone else for that matter. As the last Cetra, or Ancient, she also began to believe that maybe the soul mate thing wouldn't apply to her.

As a child she remembered her mother saying once that she never saw colour with her father, and so the young girl began to believe she wouldn't see them in her lifetime either. This perspective changed, however, when she was 15 and a SOLDIER of Shinra came crashing through the roof of the little church in the slums.

The very moment Aerith touched him, she was flooded with bright lights and beautiful colours, and with that took her time sitting and staring at the beauty of the flowers. After she got over her little moment, she took a step back and instead stood over him, calling out a single word.

“Hello.” The girl repeated over and over, giggling slightly to herself when he awoke and began speaking. She could tell the moment he touched her as well, that he couldn't see the colours. With that, Aerith decided it would be better off if she didn’t say anything, in case he already had a soul mate, and didn't want to be bothered with having to deal with another. She turned down his request at a date, but accepted the fact that they could be friends.

2 years later, after they had gotten quite a bit closer through phone calls and little visits, Zack’s mentor Angeal dies, and she holds him as he cries over it, silently berating herself for not telling him she could see the colours, and instead putting herself through her own little torture by seeing them while trying to help him through this horrible time.

Soon after, an Angeal copy comes to keep her safe, and Zack and herself get to making a flower cart to sell them around Midgar, since they can’t really be found anywhere. He is then called in on a mission, and at the end of it, Zack seems to disappear completely. He stops answering her calls, and he doesn't come to visit.

Over the next few years, Aerith overcomes her fears and goes and sells the flowers on her own. AVALANCHE comes looking for her, but she is kept safe by Turks. Over this time, she gives Tseng some letters, hoping that one day they will reach Zack.

After the 4 years, she writes one last letter, and gives it to the Angeal copy. She still never hears back from him, and wonders what happened to him.

Much later she ends up meeting one Cloud Strife, and when a Turk by the name of Reno comes to apprehend her, she asks him to be her bodyguard, and offers a date as payment.

They end up going back to Sector 7 after, and take a small break in the Sector 6 playground. The duo see Tifa on a cart, and end up devising a plan to save her, assuming her captured.

When she talks Cloud into crossdressing in order to save Tifa, he comes around to admitting that he can see colours when he touches Aerith, but he didn't tell her earlier for certain reasons. After she prods about, asking and almost begging him to tell her why, he admits it’s because the only one that he feels he could ever be with, even though he can’t any longer, is Zack. She is startled by this, and after more prodding, gets more information out of him. Zack had told Cloud he had seen colours when the two touched, and the chocobo head didn't see them in response, and it tore him apart inside. Regardless of this, Zack still kept him around, right up to his point of dying.

Now, Aerith hadn't yet been informed of his death, and took the news a bit hard. After sitting in silence for a few minutes, she then admitted to Cloud that she had seem colours with Zack, and that she didn’t feel as though she could truly love Cloud either, no matter how much he looked like him.

They ended up finishing their mission after that, learning that Tifa wasn't actually captured and they more or less did all that for nothing.

After all of this, they go to relax for a little bit before attempting to stop Shinra, of whom came to destroy AVALANCHE. Cloud and Aerith sit next to each other, both in a quiet state of remorse and mourning, fingers gently entwined together. They whisper to one another as much as they can about Zack, in the end deciding to try and keep each other safe, and love one another as much as they love Zack, since that is what he would want of them. After all, he is the missing piece to both of their broken hearts.

**Author's Note:**

> I tried. But sadness. I wasn't quite sure how or where to end this part, so I just went along with it and ended a bit before where Aerith dies. I might actually make a fourth part to this, if only to completely emotionally destroy Cloud by having another loved one die, and then kind of delve into the fact that that is why he's so cold and doesn't smile at all in Advent Children. Should I? I don't even know.  
>  The whole thing I put the titles to the lyrics of In My Veins by Andrew Belle and you should go listen to it~
> 
> _Oh, you're in my veins_  
>  And I cannot get you out  
> Oh, you're all I taste  
> At night inside of my mouth  
> Oh, you run away  
> 'Cause I am not what you found  
> Oh, you're in my veins  
> And I cannot get you out 


End file.
